A cluttered stash is a slow stash. Knowing what to keep, what to sell, and what to craft on demand is one of the biggest efficiency gains you can make in Arc Raiders — and it costs nothing but a shift in mindset. This guide covers every category in your inventory and gives you a target stack count so you always have room for the good stuff.
The Core Principle: Keep What You Use, Sell Everything Else
Just because something is good doesn't mean you need to keep it. The Bobcat is a strong weapon — but if you don't run PvP builds, it's a wasted stash slot. Sell it. The goal is a stash that reflects your current playstyle and current needs, not a museum of everything you've ever looted.
The Mindset Shift
Higher-tier loot makes it psychologically easier to scrap lower-tier items you don't purposefully need. Once you start running 2x event raids and coming back with better gear, that old blue you've been hoarding becomes much easier to let go.
Zero-Stock Categories
These are items you should carry zero of in your stash outside of active use.
Ammo
Never keep ammo in your stash. Buy what you need right before a raid, or craft it — it's a few thousand coins. Stocking ammo wastes stash slots that could hold craftables or weapons. The exception: if you're pre-loading a particularly expensive caliber for a big run, buy it right before you drop.
Weapon Attachments
Always attach attachments directly to your weapons. An attachment sitting loose in your stash is dead weight. Equip it or sell it.
Low-Stock Categories
These categories warrant a handful of stacks at most — or none at all, depending on your blueprints.
Augments
Like ammo, don't stockpile augments unless you have a specific reason to. A few stacks (2–4) for PvP use is reasonable, or if you found a particularly strong one and don't have its blueprint yet. Otherwise, blueprint-hunt the ones you like, then craft or buy blue augments as needed. Most aren't worth saving beyond a handful.
The exception: if you regularly use a purple augment and don't have its blueprint yet — like the Survivor — it's worth stockpiling those when you find them. Purple augments can be hard to come by, and running out mid-session without a way to restock is a real problem. Prioritize hunting that blueprint so you can craft on demand instead.
Shields
Same logic as augments. Keep a small working reserve of your preferred shield tier. Blueprint the best options and craft to restock. Aim for no more than 5 stacks total.
Keys
Use Your Keys or Give Them Away
An unused key is worthless. A key used in a normal raid is worth far more than a key gathering dust while you wait for a 2x event. Use them on regular raids. Better to use them and miss a 2x multiplier than to never use them at all and waste the stash space. If you truly don't want them, give them to a squadmate or random.
Dynamic Categories: Reflect Your Current Goals
How much crafting material you keep should change based on what you're working on right now.
Crafting Materials
Know what you like to craft, what you need to craft, and what you want 2–3 stacks of on reserve. Stocking up on guns? Keep all the metal, rubber, springs, mech components (regular and advanced), and gun parts you can. Upgrading workbenches? Get the materials quickly, hold onto them until the upgrade is done, then stop hoarding.
A single stack of most important crafting items — just to have it when you need it — is usually the right baseline. Slots are better filled with craftable items than with raw materials you haven't decided to use yet. If you're unsure whether a specific item is needed for a quest or station upgrade before recycling it, check the Needed Items & Recycling Guide first.
Equipable Utilities
Items like medkits (Mullein), grenades, and other consumables get used fast. Keep a working supply — roughly 40–60 stacks across the whole category — and craft or buy to replenish as they run out. Don't let this category bloat.
Seeds
Spend your seeds on things you can't easily refine yourself: springs, gun parts, duct tape, and similar materials. These have a high demand-to-rarity ratio and are almost always worth converting seeds into. That said, keeping 1 stack of seeds on hand is useful — Celeste's shop occasionally has exactly what you need for a quick craft, and having seeds ready means you're never caught waiting.
High-Value Items Worth Keeping
Weapons
Guns are one of the best stores of value and utility in the game. They hold more item value per stash slot than most other categories. Collect them, use them, and repair/upgrade the ones you like. Keeping 100–150 weapons on hand is reasonable depending on how often you're running raids and burning through loadouts.
High-Value ARC Components
Keep large, high-value ARC components. A single three-stack of Bastion Cells, for example, stores more effective value per stash slot than the individual recyclable parts you'd get from breaking it down. Hold these until you have a specific use for them.
Things to Sell Immediately
- Trinkets: Sell all of them. No exceptions unless you're collecting.
- Blueprints: Sell these unless you want to gift them to friends or randoms, or if you genuinely don't have time to use them. Sitting on a blueprint stack helps nobody.
- Lone 1-count stacks: Got a stack of 10 and a separate stack of 1 for the same item you're not purposefully stockpiling? Sell or recycle the 1-count. Every slot counts.
Not Sure if Something is Safe to Recycle?
Before you sell or recycle an item you're unfamiliar with, check the Needed Items & Recycling Guide. It breaks down exactly which items are safe to recycle, which ones are required for quests, station upgrades, and expeditions, and what each item recycles into — so you never accidentally scrap something you'll need later.
Stash Organization Tips
Use the "group/merge" Button
There's a grouping/consolidation button in the top-right of your stash (you may know it as "Collect"). Use it regularly. It merges partial stacks and keeps things tidy automatically.
Be Mindful of Stack Sizes When Refining
Before you refine, check your totals. If you have exactly 21 mech components worth of raw materials, only refine 20 — unless that final 1-count uses up all the prerequisite materials cleanly. Leaving partial stacks of inputs is wasteful.
Upgrade Your Refiner Early
The refiner is one of the most impactful upgrades in your hideout. Get it upgraded as soon as possible and use it consistently. Refined materials stack better, craft faster, and open up better recipes.
Play 2x Event Raids
Whenever a 2x loot event is running, prioritize it. Higher-tier loot makes it much easier to let go of lower-tier items — you'll naturally start scrapping things you used to hoard once you have better replacements coming in consistently.
Suggested Stash Targets at a Glance
These are rough targets that experienced players find comfortable. Adjust based on your current goals:
The Result
Following these targets leaves at least 100 stacks free at all times — for incoming raid loot, weapons you're testing, or room to maneuver. A lean stash is faster to navigate, easier to manage, and far less stressful than trying to decide what to drop mid-raid.
Got a Stash Tip?
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